It is generally known in the art as explained in U.S. Pat. No. 4,333,796 to Flynn, that bubbles of gas and vapor in a liquid medium expand to a maximum size and then collapse with great violence as part of a cavitation phenomenon. When such cavitation phenomenon is properly controlled, high energy densities occur within the bubbles formed in the surrounding liquid medium. According to the Flynn patent, the surrounding liquid medium in the cavitation zone is liquidfied metal to which energy is applied, including acoustical waves.
The creation of bubbles within a liquid medium such as a mixture of glycerin and water to which energy is applied through a transducer to control periodic collapse and reformation of the bubbles, is known in the art as "sonoluminescence". Such "sonoluminescence" phenomenon involves the cyclic emission of energy in the visible spectrum from the collapsing bubbles. It is also generally known that bubbles exist long enough to allow development therein of a significant vapor pressure influencing the dynamics of bubble oscillations within sinusoidally varying acoustic fields, limiting the extent of bubble collapse.
It is therefore an important object of the present invention to provide a method of developing extremely high pressures within the small volume of a single bubble, cavitationally induced within a liquid medium by minimizing the delay in bubble formation and collapse during development of vapor within the bubble.